Eça de Queiroz

What a strange people! For them it is a matter of certainty that no one can be moral without reading the Bible; no one can be strong without playing cricket; no one can be a gentleman without being English. And this is what makes them hated. They never blend; they never become un-English ... The Englishman falls on foreign ideas and customs as a block of granite falls on water. There he stays, with his Bible, his clubs, his sports, his prejudices, his etiquette, his self-centredness ... Even in countries where he has lived for hundreds of years, he is still the foreigner.

Eça de Queiroz, Cartas de Inglaterra

"I detest England, but this does not stop me from declaring that as a thinking nation, she is probably the foremost." Eça de Queiroz
It may be said that England acted as a constant stimulus and a corrective to Eça’s traditionally Portuguese francophilia.

Taken from Wikipedia

Eça viveu a sociedade inglesa assim como viveu a sociedade portuguesa, sempre numa relação de amor e ódio. O que diz muito mais do indivíduo do que do que das sociedades em causa.